An affinity chromatography is a chromatography using a column filled with a ligand immobilization support in which a substance (ligand) capable of specifically binding a substance for the purpose of separation or purification is immobilized on an insoluble support. The affinity chromatography is used, for example, for separation or purification of bio-related substances such as protein or nucleic acid (Patent Literature 1). As the support for the affinity chromatography, for example, cross-linked particles of a carbohydrate chain, represented by agarose gel, and particles containing, as a main component, a synthetic polymer are used.
In the affinity chromatography, it is necessary to immobilize a ligand, which is a substance capable of specifically reacting with a target substance, to a support. For the purpose of immobilization of the ligand to the support, a method is frequently used in which the ligand is chemically bonded to various functional groups existing on a surface of the support through functional groups on the ligand. The ligands used for the affinity chromatography, however, generally have multiple functional groups, and the multiple functional groups are disorderly bound to functional groups on the support surface. This causes a problem in which the immobilized ligand can insufficiently effectively utilized in conventional affinity chromatography.